Assad Building Mountain Fortress

Mountainous Northern Syria

The Mountains of Northern Syria

Friends, with events in the Middle East & Persia reaching crisis point and as we approach the 9th of Av it is important to remember God is in control and to pray over Psalm 83 & Isaiah 17 below.

Psa 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Psa 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Psa 83:4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Psa 83:5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
Psa 83:6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
Psa 83:7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Psa 83:8 Assur also is joined with them:

Isa 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
President Bashar Assad is literally digging in for a full-scale civil war.
He is constructing a a fortress for himself, his family, his loyal generals and ruling elite in the northwestern Mountains of Syria. From there, he will fight for his and Alawite survival.
These mountains have the only dense forests in the vicinity of Syria's Mediterranean coast. Syrian engineering corps crews are working to build a fortified encampment, partly inside caves and tunnels, on the wooded slopes. Its perimeter is enclosed with anti-tank defenses armed with anti-air batteries. When finished, the camp will be one of the most heavily fortified strongholds in the Middle East. Large groups of Alawite families began moving in the last week of November from the mixed towns of Latakia, Hama and Homs
This mass relocation includes around a million Alawites, or a third of the 3.5 million members or one-tenth of Syria's total population.
By stablishing his headquarters in a mountain fortress, Bashar Assad hopes to achieve two goals:
1. To keep his Alawite sect, friends and allies out of harm's way in a full-scale civil war. Assad knows the Alawites will face bitter Sunni revenge for the brutal persecution its adherents have suffered from Assad father and son for 37 years.
2. Movng Alawite families in protected cantons will guarantee their loyalty to Bashar Assad and his clan.